Vietnam Mid-Autumn Festival 2026: Traditions, Events & Best Places to Visit

Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn Festival, or Tet Trung Thu, returns on Friday, September 25, 2026, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Unlike Tet or National Day, it is not an official paid public holiday under Vietnam’s Labor Code, so most offices stay open, but schools, families and entire streets still build the whole final week of August and September around it. In 2026, the biggest confirmed programs range from Tuyen Quang’s giant lantern parade to Hoi An’s own Mid-Autumn lion dance festival, giving travelers several very different ways to experience the full moon.

This guide covers when Trung Thu 2026 falls, the legends behind it, and where to go in Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam for the most authentic celebrations, together with the mooncakes and seasonal dishes worth trying during your Vietnam trip. Mid-Autumn is also one of the biggest yearly festivals in Vietnam.

Vietnam Mid-Autumn Festival 2026 at a Glance

Before planning where to celebrate, it helps to know exactly when the 2026 festival falls, why the date shifts every year, and the two folktales every Vietnamese child grows up hearing on the night of the full moon.

When Is Mid-Autumn Festival 2026?

Tet Trung Thu always falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, right in the middle of the season covered in our Autumn in Vietnam travel guide. In 2026, that date corresponds to Friday, September 25 on the Gregorian calendar. Because the festival follows the lunar calendar, its Gregorian date shifts every year, landing anywhere between mid-September and early October. Mid-Autumn Festival is not one of Vietnam’s official paid public holidays under the 2019 Labor Code, so most workplaces operate normally, but schools, residential neighborhoods and shopping centers still run their own Trung Thu programs in the days around it.

The Legend of Cuoi and the Banyan Tree

One of Vietnam’s best-loved Mid-Autumn legends tells of Cuoi, a kind-hearted man who discovered a magical banyan tree with the power to heal the dying. As the tree started to lift into the sky, Cuoi grabbed its roots and was carried up to the moon, where he has remained ever since. Vietnamese children are told that if they look closely at the full moon on Trung Thu night, they can still see Cuoi sitting beneath his banyan tree.

The Moon Goddess Hang Nga

The second central figure is Hang Nga, the Moon Goddess, a graceful and solitary presence associated with beauty and quiet longing. Families gathering to admire the full moon, share mooncakes and speak of harmony draw directly on her story, giving the festival its romantic, reflective undertone alongside the noisier lantern parades and lion dances aimed at children.

Best Places to Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Northern Vietnam

Northern Vietnam offers the most traditional Trung Thu atmosphere, with Hanoi running several confirmed 2026 programs across the Old Quarter, Son Tay and Dong Anh, alongside Tuyen Quang’s much larger, officially confirmed provincial lantern festival.

Shop for Lanterns on Hanoi’s Hang Ma Street

Hang Ma, a roughly 300-meter street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, has sold festival lanterns, masks and paper toys for generations. From early in the eighth lunar month, the shopfronts fill with star lanterns, carp-shaped lanterns, spinning drum lanterns and traditional papier-mache masks, and the street is partly pedestrianized in the evenings to handle the crowds. Hang Ma is one of the 36 guild streets of the Hanoi Old Quarter, historically specialized in votive paper offerings, which is why its shops pivot so naturally to lanterns and festival goods each Trung Thu. It is one of the easiest ways for visitors to experience Trung Thu without needing tickets or a fixed schedule; simply arrive after sunset, when the lanterns are lit and the street is at its most photogenic. A Hanoi city tour can combine Hang Ma with the nearby Old Quarter streets and Hoan Kiem Lake earlier in the day.

Hang Ma Street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter fills with lanterns and traditional toys weeks before the full moon.

Join the Official Hanoi Old Quarter Mid-Autumn Festival

Beyond casual shopping on Hang Ma, the Hoan Kiem Lake and Old Quarter Management Board runs its own annual “Trung Thu Pho Co” festival across several heritage houses in the space of about a week before the full moon, a tradition our own earlier coverage of Hanoi’s Mid-Autumn activities traces back to the Red River Delta’s rice-growing civilization more than 4,000 years ago. In its most recent edition, the program spread across the Ancient House at 87 Ma May Street, Kim Ngan Communal House at 42-44 Hang Bac Street, and the Cultural and Art Center at 22 Hang Buom Street, with craftsmen demonstrating traditional toy-making (star lanterns, paper mache masks, “to he” rice-flour figurines), a children’s fashion show, and a themed installation exploring old Hanoi’s lion-head craftsmanship.

The festival’s centerpiece, a large outdoor “Full Moon Night” stage show and mooncake-tray decorating competition, is held at Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, at the northern tip of Hoan Kiem Lake, drawing crowds of more than 2,000. Exact 2026 dates for this specific Old Quarter program have not yet been published; based on past years it typically runs in the final week before the full moon, so travelers should check the Hoan Kiem Lake and Old Quarter Management Board’s channels closer to September.

Watch the Lantern Parade at Son Tay Ancient Citadel

Hanoi’s western Son Tay ward has confirmed its own “Trung Thu Thanh Co – Son Tay Xu Doai” festival for 2026, built around a lantern model competition and parade contested by all 25 residential groups in the ward. Judging and street parades are scheduled in two rounds, with 13 teams competing on Saturday, September 5 and 12 teams on Saturday, September 12, each model built around a Mid-Autumn theme layered with local historical and cultural references to Son Tay’s nearly 200-year-old ancient citadel, built in 1822 under King Minh Mang. For travelers already visiting the citadel, timing a visit to one of these two Saturdays adds a genuine local festival on top of the historic site itself, and it makes a feasible half-day add-on to a Hanoi itinerary since Son Tay sits about 40 kilometers west of the city center.

Residential groups in Son Tay parade giant lantern models past the ward’s nearly 200-year-old citadel during the annual Trung Thu Thanh Co festival.

Attend Hanoi’s Citywide “Dem Hoi Trang Ram” Program

Under an official city plan issued on July 30, 2026, Hanoi has confirmed a citywide “Dem Hoi Trang Ram 2026” (“Full Moon Festival Night”) program at 8:00 PM on September 25 in Dong Anh, on Hanoi’s northern outskirts, with roughly 1,000 delegates and children attending in person and the event livestreamed on the city’s official social media channels. The program mixes musical performances, lion dance, gift-giving and meet-and-greets with performers, and each ward across Hanoi has been directed to run its own smaller Mid-Autumn activities for children between September 20 and 25. This is primarily a community and children’s program rather than a tourist attraction, but it signals that most Hanoi neighborhoods will have some visible Trung Thu activity throughout that final week, not only in the Old Quarter.

Join the Thanh Tuyen Lantern Festival in Tuyen Quang

The single biggest confirmed Mid-Autumn event for 2026 is the Thanh Tuyen Festival in Tuyen Quang province, running from September 19 to 25, 2026 (with some related activities continuing to September 29) around Nguyen Tat Thanh Square and 26/3 Square in the provincial center. Its highlight, “Đêm hội Thành Tuyên – Lung linh đêm hội trăng rằm” (“Radiant Full Moon Night”), takes place at 8:00 PM on September 20 at Nguyen Tat Thanh Square, when 40 giant handcrafted lantern models built by local wards parade through the city. The models, representing folk tales, zodiac animals and cultural symbols, are judged in a province-wide competition before the parade, and the surrounding week adds a food and OCOP product fair, a marathon and other community events.

For international visitors, Thanh Tuyen offers a scale and craftsmanship that Hanoi’s street-level Trung Thu cannot match, since entire commune associations spend weeks building lantern floats several meters tall. Tuyen Quang province is roughly a 2.5 to 3-hour drive north of Hanoi, making it feasible as a long day trip or overnight stop, and travelers with more time can continue north on the same route toward Ha Giang’s karst mountain scenery.

One of the 40 giant lantern models built by local wards for the Thanh Tuyen Festival, Vietnam’s largest Mid-Autumn lantern celebration.

Share a Family Reunion Dinner and Moon-Watching in Hanoi

On the night of the 15th itself, Vietnamese households prepare a tray of mooncakes, fruit and lanterns, often set outdoors or by a window so children can admire the moon while the family eats together. Visitors staying in Hanoi can recreate this atmosphere with a lakeside dinner around Hoan Kiem Lake or the West Lake area, where restaurants and cafes often add their own lantern displays for the season, followed by a walk through the Old Quarter once Hang Ma is lit.

Best Places to Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Central Vietnam

Central Vietnam’s Trung Thu centers on Hoi An and Da Nang, where the ancient town’s existing lantern culture is paired with a dedicated 2026 Mid-Autumn program built around a local tradition found nowhere else in the country.

Join the Hoi An Mid-Autumn Festival (Tet Trung Thu Binh Ngo 2026)

Da Nang’s tourism authorities have confirmed a “Hoi An Mid-Autumn Festival” (Hoi Tet Trung Thu Binh Ngo 2026) centered on Hoi An, Hoi An Dong and Hoi An Tay wards, running from September 23 to 26, 2026 around the September 25 full moon. The program includes a Thien Cau (“Heavenly Dog”) dance competition, a folk performance unique to Hoi An that differs from the lion dances found elsewhere in Vietnam, alongside a standard lion dance competition, a traditional Mid-Autumn tray display, a lantern procession and community activities across the ancient town. This builds on a tradition covered in more depth in our dedicated guide to Mid-Autumn Festival in Hoi An, where children parade in masks of Cuoi and painted animal faces alongside the lantern-shaped lights. Exact stage locations and start times for individual performances should be confirmed through the city’s official schedule closer to the date, since only the four-day window has been announced so far.

Hoi An Mid-Autumn Festival, a nationally recognized celebration with lanterns and lion dances

Walk Hoi An’s Lantern-Lit Streets and Full Moon River Ceremony

Separately from the organized festival program, Hoi An’s ancient town holds its own monthly Full Moon Lantern Festival around the 14th day of every lunar month, when motor vehicles are banned from the old streets, shopfront lights are switched off in favor of paper lanterns, and locals release small floating lanterns on the Thu Bon River. Because the 2026 Mid-Autumn full moon falls on the 15th lunar day, this monthly tradition lines up almost exactly with Trung Thu itself, adding river lantern releases and traditional games like tug-of-war and bai choi folk singing to the Mid-Autumn program above. Note that Hoi An’s separate International Lantern Festival, themed “Hoi An – Colors of Heritage,” is scheduled for December 3-6, 2026 around Tet Nguyen Dan, not Mid-Autumn, so travelers should not confuse the two events when planning a September visit. See our Hoi An travel guide for the rest of the ancient town’s attractions.

Hoi An Lantern Festival, held monthly on the 14th day of the lunar month in the Ancient Town

Best Places to Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in Southern Vietnam

Southern Vietnam’s Trung Thu is less about organized stage events and more about its own dedicated shopping street, which has drawn residents and visitors in Ho Chi Minh City for half a century.

Visit Luong Nhu Hoc Lantern Street in Ho Chi Minh City

Luong Nhu Hoc Street, in Cho Lon ward (the former District 5), is widely known as Ho Chi Minh City’s lantern street. Along a roughly 200 to 300-meter stretch near its junction with Nguyen Trai and Tran Hung Dao streets, stalls that have made and sold lanterns for more than 50 years fill the sidewalk with star lanterns, carp lanterns, spinning drum lanterns and modern battery-powered designs, with prices starting around 20,000 to 25,000 VND. The street sits inside Cho Lon, the city’s historic Chinese quarter, so an evening here can easily be paired with Cantonese and Teochew restaurants nearby for a Mid-Autumn dinner. As with Hang Ma in Hanoi, there is no separate ticketed program here; the street itself is the destination, so simply visiting on any evening in the two weeks before September 25 will catch it at its liveliest.

Stalls on Luong Nhu Hoc Street in Cho Lon have sold Mid-Autumn lanterns for more than 50 years, drawing crowds each evening before the full moon.

Watch Neighborhood Lantern Parades Across Ho Chi Minh City

Rather than one flagship city-run event, Ho Chi Minh City’s Mid-Autumn programming is organized ward by ward through the Youth Union and local Children’s Culture Houses, which typically run their own “Dem Hoi Trang Ram” evening programs with lion dance, gift-giving and lantern parades for children in the days before September 25. These are community events rather than tourist attractions and vary by ward, but they mean that visitors staying almost anywhere in the city are likely to encounter a lit-up lantern parade or a neighborhood mooncake stall in the final week before the full moon, beyond Cho Lon itself.

More Mid-Autumn Traditions and Games to Experience Anywhere in Vietnam

Beyond the region-specific festivals above, several customs recur across the whole country during the two weeks around the full moon, and are easy for visitors to join or watch even without understanding Vietnamese.

Join the Lantern Parade and Feast

Alongside the dedicated street festivals in Hanoi, Tuyen Quang, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City, most neighborhoods and schools across Vietnam hold their own smaller lantern parades and communal feasts in the days before the full moon, giving children a chance to carry lanterns through their own streets rather than travel to a major event. On the night of the 15th itself, households set out a tray of mooncakes, fruit and lanterns by a window or in the yard, timed so the family can admire the full moon together while eating. Visitors staying anywhere in Vietnam with a homestay or local family connection, including through a Central Vietnam with World Heritage tour through Hoi An, can often be invited to join this tray-viewing custom directly.

Admire a Folk Song Singing Contest (Hat Trong Quan)

Call-and-response folk singing contests are a northern Vietnamese custom during Mid-Autumn.

A northern Vietnamese custom pairs groups of men and women in call-and-response singing contests, accompanied by a simple drum-and-string instrument. Verses can be traditional or improvised on the spot, and the exchange grows especially lively when one side poses a difficult riddle.

Watch a Traditional Lion Dance (Mua Lan)

Lion dance troupes perform around the 14th and 15th days of the eighth lunar month.

Troupes practice the lion dance especially around the 14th and 15th days of the eighth lunar month. A performer holds the lion’s head while another manages its long red-cloth tail, accompanied by cymbals and a flag-bearer, and children often follow the group to try to reach money gifts hung up high for the lion to “catch.”

Try On Festival Costumes and Traditional Games

Festival costumes and simple game sets are sold alongside lanterns for children of all ages during Trung Thu.

Alongside lanterns, street vendors in Hang Ma, Luong Nhu Hoc and similar lantern streets sell paper masks, ong dia (Earth God) costumes and simple traditional game sets aimed at children, from spinning tops to paper fans. Many neighborhood associations also organize short game sessions for kids as part of their local Mid-Autumn program, making these streets worth a daytime visit as well as an evening one.

Traditional Mid-Autumn Foods to Try

Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn table centers on mooncakes, but several regional dishes appear only in this narrow autumn window.

Mooncakes (Banh Trung Thu)

Mooncakes come in both baked and sticky-rice-crust styles, filled with lotus seed, red bean or salted egg yolk.

Mooncakes are the festival’s signature food, sold in both baked (banh nuong) and soft sticky-rice-crust (banh deo) styles. Fillings range from classic red bean and lotus seed paste to modern versions like matcha, chocolate, lava custard and salted egg yolk, wrapped in a crust finished with lard or vegetable oil. Our guide to Vietnamese mooncakes covers how to choose between these styles and the best time before the full moon to buy them fresh.

Pickled Hong Fruit (Hong Ngam)

Pickled Hong fruit is a seasonal autumn snack sold on Hanoi’s streets each Mid-Autumn.

This orange-yellow persimmon, soaked to remove its natural astringency, is a seasonal favorite sold on Hanoi’s streets specifically in the autumn weeks around Trung Thu, prized for its soft, sweet flesh and high vitamin A content.

Sticky Rice with Young Green Rice (Xoi Com)

Xoi com combines young green rice, mung beans and grated coconut, available only in early autumn.

Made from young green rice (com) harvested at the very start of autumn, this dish combines pounded green rice with mung beans and grated coconut, and is only available for the short window when fresh com is in season.

Grapefruit Salad (Nom Buoi)

Nom buoi mixes grapefruit with boiled shrimp and pork in a sweet-sour fish sauce dressing.

This salad combines segments of grapefruit with boiled shrimp and pork in a dressing of fish sauce, honey, chili and lime, sometimes finished with grilled laksa leaf for extra fragrance.

Travel Tips for Visiting Vietnam During Mid-Autumn Festival

• Confirm event schedules close to the date: Detailed stage times for Hoi An’s Thien Cau dance and other city-run performances are typically finalized only a few weeks ahead. Check official municipal channels rather than relying on the previous year’s schedule.
• Arrive early at lantern streets: Hang Ma in Hanoi and Luong Nhu Hoc in Ho Chi Minh City become extremely crowded after dark in the final week before the full moon; a weekday evening visit is noticeably calmer than a weekend.
• Book transport to Tuyen Quang in advance: Because the Thanh Tuyen night parade draws large domestic crowds to a single square, accommodation and private transfers from Hanoi should be arranged well ahead of September 20.
• Expect no public holiday closures: Since Trung Thu is not an official paid holiday, offices, banks and most tourist attractions operate on their normal schedules, unlike during Tet or National Day.
• Watch for early autumn rain: Late September falls within a transitional, occasionally rainy period in the north and center. Carry light rain protection for outdoor lantern parades and check forecasts before evening events.

Plan Your Vietnam Trip with Paradise Travel

Paradise Travel is a licensed international tour operator headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. Established in 2005, Paradise Travel and Media Joint Stock Company operates under International Tour Operator License No. 01-2161/2023/TCDL-GP LHQT. Our local travel consultants build tailor-made itineraries around seasonal events like Mid-Autumn Festival, handling transportation, accommodation and private guides across your travel dates.

Whether you want to combine Hanoi’s Hang Ma lantern street with the Thanh Tuyen Festival on a North Vietnam tour, experience Hoi An’s Mid-Autumn lantern culture through our Central Vietnam tours, or spend the full moon exploring Cho Lon and Luong Nhu Hoc Street with our South Vietnam tours, Paradise Travel can build your route around the Trung Thu experiences that matter most to you.

Get in touch with our local travel consultants for personalized advice, or create your own Vietnam holiday and let our team build an itinerary around your schedule.

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